Hospital floors are cold
by Milklea
Summary: (NejiTenten) this is a oneshot about neji's coming home from the rescue sasuke mission! and tenten watches over him. RR onegai! also i suck at summarys!


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Naruto or anything else mentioned in this, i only own the story -

Pairings- Neji+Tenten, maybe some slight Naruto+Hinata

(Jap): This is a one shot, about Neji coming back from the "rescue Sasuke mission", and Tenten checking on him. I'm rating it teen for slight fluff and just to be careful, I hope it's good it's my first try at a romance fic so, I've read plenty enough of them to write one, I just hope it's okay…no flamers please! w;;

* * *

**Hospital floors are cold…**

Tenten was sitting on a bench waiting impatiently for a reply from the medic-nins and doctors taking care of all the genins that came back from…that, mission. Next to her was Rock Lee, her 'other' teammate he was more jittery than she was, he had his hands clasped together intertwining the fingers, twitching all over, he too was waiting for a reply on their condition.

Tenten's POV

After they came back I heard that he had gone to help them without anyone noticing, you could say Gai-sensei wasn't as 'proud' as Lee had hoped, but that's another story….

"Do you think he's alright Lee?" I said.

"Of course Tenten! He's a Hyuuga!" Lee said trying to cheer me up.

"…..yeah…" I said as I lowered my head, I had a feeling Lee didn't hear me very well since he didn't reply.

There was an air conditioner behind us and it seemed very old, it didn't blow very well, and when it did you could hear a clunking noise that came from the inside, probably a…screw loose…the air it blew was kanpuu…colder then it should've been, it was getting near winter soon so it was already cold outside, I wondered why they had an air conditioner on, if anything it might of gotten the patients more sick.

Every once in a while a nurse would come in and ask Lee to let them bandage him up, but he would just say 'not until I see my friends.' So they would eventually give up, if not I would tell them we're not in the mood, and they would leave us be. I started getting tired of waiting so I got up off the bench and walked to the front desk to ask the receptionist if we could see anybody yet.

"Can we-"

"Excuse me, are you miss Tenten?" she interrupted me.

"…oh, uh yes I'm Tenten." I said.

"I was told by your sensei to let you and that boy have access to visit you teammate, but only for a little while, he'll need lots of rest to heal all of his wounds." She told me.

My heart sank a little when she said 'all of his wounds' of course I knew he wasn't going to be perfectly fine when he came back but, I wasn't sure how bad it would be.

"A-Arigatou" I said when turning around, I walked over to Lee to tell him we could go see everybody.

"Oi, Lee, she said we can have access to their rooms." He looked up directly at me and stood up, putting his hands on my shoulders. I stiffened from the sudden change in gravity.

"I'm going to go check on Naruto-kun, and co. you go see him first Tenten" he told me sternly.

"Are you sure Lee? Don't you want to go see him with me?" I asked him not believing I could do it myself. After saying that I mentally slapped myself, I'm going to be the best kunoichi in Konoha, and I still ask my teammates for things such as a nightlight…because I'm too scared of the dark.

"No it's alright, I'll visit him later! You go see him now before he goes to sleep!" he almost yelled, but at least this time he knew to stay in hospital limits of noise. After that, he pushed me to the hall and gave me a thumbs up equipped with blinding teeth. Then ran down a hall that I assumed was the one that had Naruto's room.

I stared at my feet while walking to 'his' room…I would occasionally look up to look at room names to make sure I wasn't going the wrong way.

I stopped at one room, reading the patients name tag. '….Hyuuga, Neji…' it read, I put my ear to the door listening to anything inside. I'd hate to walk in if family was there, that might be a bit too awkward for me, and Neji both.

After not hearing anything and getting strange looks from people that walked down the hall I slowly opened the door and walked in.

"Neji?" I asked.

"….." nothing.

"Neji are you asleep?" I whispered it this time, if he was asleep I sure didn't want to wake him. I got a closer look and saw he was sleeping. Soundly at that.

I saw next to him was a flower in a small vase, there was a card too, from the look of it I knew it was Hinata, she told me that they had come the day before since family can visit earlier. His window was open and there was a soyokaze going through, it made the curtains flow up and slowly float back down. It looked so serene with the room so pale, a lot like his face. So clear and clean excluding the bandages, he didn't look as damaged as he really was, so you wouldn't worry as much at first glance. I shook my head coming back to realization; I'd almost forgotten why I was there because of the scenery.

I found myself watching him, his chest slowly going up and down with each breath, not a hair out of place, ….when I finally got my eyes off of him I found a chair in the corner, walking to it I noticed it was a little rusty on the bottom, so moving it wont do. I sat down on it and crossed my legs, my bangs blew in the kaze that went through.

As I looked out the window I could see the village people walking about their everyday lives…shopping, selling, or walking with friends, it looked so peaceful.

I looked up toward the sun at the clouds and forgot everything around me…I started thinking about things…I wondered, what am I going to do after this? What will team 9 do after this? ……what will team 7 become after this?

I broke out of my stupor to see a flock of birds fly by.

"…seven…seven birds" I said.

"You missed one, there were eight." A stern voice said.

"Neji…you should be sleeping." I said keeping at my view through the window.

"How can I sleep when people watch me?" he said, with a slight touch of humor in his voice.

Dang, he saw me watching him. Now he's got something to blackmail me with.

I turned to see him staring at me still laying down in his hospital bed. "You say something about watching people?" I told him, "Hn…" was his reply.

After a long silence he spoke out, for once.

"Where's Lee?" he asked me.

"He's checking on Naruto and the others." I said.

"….how….how is everyone?" he said.

I was almost shocked at this, The Hyuuga Neji, just asked how his teammates were, I mean sure, this isn't something that would be considered weird, but it's Neji, so it WOULD be considered odd…for him to say that.

Yet again I broke out of another stupor, to answer this question.

"oh uhh…I'm not sure…I came to see you…first." I started to blush so I looked out the window again, hoping he wouldn't see me.

I was wrong.

"…." Neji said nothing.

Although he did try to sit up, but winced at the pain and clutched his bandages. "Neji!" I turned around and got out of my chair to go to him but tripped and fell…nice one Tenten.

"..ow…" I moaned, I was half on and half off the bed, just laying there, with Neji staring at me.

And the worst thing about, he was laughing at me.

"ahahaha…" Neji was actually laughing at me! Laughing! Him! Neji! Chuckling more really, but in my book I wrote it in red. Then he smiled at me! Not his usual smirk, that I could've handled, I blushed so bad I was completely red in the face, I swear I looked like a tomato. A bright red tomato that's over ripe from sitting in the sunlight too long.

"N-Neji! You're laughing!" I said with a shocked expression, I was quite proud of myself for even being able to talk!

"Yes Tenten, I am." He said smugly.

"I-I guess that means you're getting better." I said with my head down on the blanket, resting it from overheating. 'No wait…it means he's getting weirder! Laughing and all!' I thought. Not noticing it when he pulled a stray hair from my face, yet again I blushed and looked at him, to see if he really knew what he was doing.

He had such an innocent look on his face, concentrating on my hair not anything else, his eyes, for once not straining to figure out what everybody is thinking or feeling, but had a soft look to them, I felt myself fall into them, like deep pools of milk, …I could look at them forever.

Great Tenten, another stupor!

He tucked my hair behind my ear and just admired my face, I was starting to go red but looked down in time to hide it, I managed to get out some words.

"Uhm…Neji?" I asked.

"Hmm, yes Tenten?"

"Would you..." I looked around and saw a basket that hade a couple fruits in it, "Like an…apple? An apple, I can peel you one." I tried to change the subject, or at least get his eyes off of me.

"Hn…" he broke his gaze on me and stared out the window, still within a daze I could see.

"I'll take that as a 'yes'" I said, and stood up, I went to the other side of the bed and got an apple and a peeler from the basket, it seems I'm not the only one who uses apples for escape routes…

I sat down the apple and peeler on the table by his bed, to search for another chair, I checked the closet thinking they might put extra there. Luckily for me there were two more fold out chairs. So I unfolded one managing to get my finger caught and pinched in the process, I sat the chair down and picked the apple an peeler, by the time I realized it Neji had been watching me the whole time, I figured he was on some high medication, and that's why he was acting that way, so I merely looked it over and began peeling.

I'm starting to think Neji was having more fun than I was, I was not very good at peeling apples it seemed, and it was all for his amusement, according to him it was anyway.

"You're doing it wrong." Neji announced.

"No I'm not." I said, fumbling with the apple.

"You look like you're killing it, rather than peeling." He told me.

"Neji I know what I'm do-ow!" I cut myself with the blade.

"…" he didn't say anything.

"…owie…" I sucked on my finger to make it stop bleeding, I hated the taste of blood, and this wasn't helping it.

I saw Neji reach for his table and pull out the drawer, I saw many different bandages inside, gauze, band aids, medical tape, antiseptic creams, ace bandages, he merely pulled out a band aid, and pulled my finger from my mouth. I was indeed half grateful he got my bloody finger from my mouth, but I did feel foolish for not getting a band aid first. He held my finger and rapped it around, very gently, 'so un-like him!' I thought.

"Ok…" he said as he sat my hand down.

"O-oh uhm….arigatou Neji.." this time there was no hiding the blush, although it wasn't that bad. I wasn't a tomato again.

I finished 'peeling' the apple, that's not what he called it but whatever. I handed it to him and he started eating it. After the only thing being left was the apple core he tossed it into the trash can by his bed and got fixated on something else.

"Tenten." He said as he looked at me, our eyes meeting.

"W-what?" I said nervously, I'll have to remember to slap myself later on for stuttering.

"You're talking like Hinata-sama" he said finally.

"N-no I'm not! I stuttered, 'crap!' I thought.

"Okay…maybe I am…a little." I said quietly. I resisted the urge to twiddle my fingers.

Then the unexpected happened.

"-yawn-" he yawned.

After today I've seen a whole new side the Neji…the heavily medicated side. I giggled a little and told him "Get some sleep Neji." He nodded slightly and slowly laid down, careful not to open any more wounds.

I stood up to leave so he could sleep some more since I ruined his nap earlier. But I was stopped by a hand grabbing my wrist.

"Tenten, you…don't have to leave." He said.

"Ohh, so Neji-_kun_ wants me to stay?" I said playfully.

Needless to say he let go of my hand but I sat back down anyway. He looked at me and with a look like that I knew that he wanted me there when he woke up. I nodded slightly and smiled, agreeing with him.

After a while he drifted off to sleep with light snoring, so light you really couldn't tell. Watching him made me tired, 'not long till I fall asleep too' I thought, I sat my elbows on the bed making sure to avoid his legs and stared out the window.

We had come pretty early so the sun was really getting place now, the room was starting to really light up, I didn't want to make Neji wake up from the sun in his eyes, so I slowly got up and walked over to the curtains, pulling one to the side so only part of the room was bright, the rest was shaded on Neji, I sat back down on my chair and made myself comfortable, "Just, resting my eyes…" I whispered to myself, laying my arms and head down on the bed again.

Slowly drifting off to sleep…

A little after that a nurse had came in, I could barely hear her talking, since I was half awake/ half asleep myself, "Miss Tenten? ...oh, -giggle- well, I suppose it's alright as long as he's asleep…" she said, to me it sounded more like a mumble, it felt like she put a blanket on me but I wasn't sure. After that she closed the door and I fell into deep sleep.

I woke up with somebody holding my nose shut so breathing wasn't an option. "Bwaat?…" I tried to say, but it made my voice sound weird. I looked up to see Neji three inches from my face with pretty much no emotion, Thank the Hokage I was too tired to blush or talk for that matter, but still…the nose thing wasn't helping.

I managed to get some words out. "Deji?" I said, he was still holding my nose captive.

"Hn…" he said, still holding my nose.

"Can you wet go of by dose?" I said with that dumb accent.

He let go after that, and tried to sit up, "Neji maybe you should..." I said while rubbing my poor nose. He sat up perfectly, "Ah…nevermind." I told him, he simply looked at me strangely and tried getting out of bed.

"Neji you're supposed to be resting!" I said.

"…." He just ignored me and kept on getting up.

I stood up and went around to help him, but he just pushed my arm away. As soon as his feet touched the floor he winced, but walked over to the window and looked out, stumbling a little.

"Neji…" I said and sat down on the bed.

"Hn…" he finally replied.

"How are your wounds?" I said, thinking of a topic. "Are they hurting any?"

"…no…not much." He said.

"That's good…"I said to him. 'At least I got a reply…' I thought, I looked around the room. I took notice to a small painting above the bedside table, it was a light blue sky with a few birds in a V formation, I happened to look down and see a picture frame on the table. 'No cage for them either I suppose…' I thought to myself, knowing well that it was Neji's doing. 'I guess Hinata-chan helped him with it…' since he couldn't move very well in this state, heck, it was surprising enough he was standing!

"Tenten, can you move over." He said looking at me.

"Wha?-oh! Sure, sure." I was caught in a bit of a daydream.

He sat down on the bed next to me still looking out the window, he probably didn't notice himself let out a long sigh.

"Don't worry about it." I said.

He looked at me to see if I was listening I guess, that's all I could think of. I simply retuned the look with a big smile, and sat up.

"I wonder how long we were asleep?...did Lee come yet?" I started questioning myself while looking at the door.

"I don't think so…he would have just blurted something out and woke us up if he did." Neji said, it made me laugh, since he's never been one for humor, though true it may have been.

Then there was a long silence for a while, an awkward one, quite unpleasant. We both just looked out the window until…

Knock, knock.

I got up and walked over to the door opening it to see who finally broke our awkward silence, I could have hugged them for doing so, but fearing it might be Lee or Gai-sensei I didn't.

"O-Ohayou, T-Tenten-chan. " there's only one girl in Konoha who stutters like that.

Hinata.

And it was her. She had come to see Neji I guess.

"It's a bit late for morning greetings don't you think?" I said.

"O-Oh, then g-good after n-noon" she managed out.

"Ahaha, good afternoon to you too Hinata" I said, I ushered her inside, and got another chair from the closet. I unfolded it for her and still pinched my finger! We both sat down on the left of Neji's bedside.

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Hinata's POV

I saw a bandage on Tenten-chan's finger and assumed it was Neji-nii-san's doing, I giggled slightly, but smiled at Tenten.

"W-What are you looking at Hinata?" Tenten asked me nervously. It was cute she started to blush, and she put her hands in her lap.

"O-Oh it's nothing T-Tenten-chan!" I said, I didn't want her to notice!

* * *

Tenten's POV

Hinata-chan was looking at my band aid I know it! That's the last thing I need right now, I didn't want her to assume things about me and Neji…..yet.

"Sooo…Hinata-chan, have you gone to visit Naruto yet?" I said.

"N-N-Naruto-kun? Oh, uhm, n-no not yet, he was t-talking with Sakura-san a-and Lee-san." She blushed at merely saying his name.

"Ohh! You should go talk to him!" I said trying to cheer her up, not to mention I was bugging Neji to death with, he called it 'girl talk' .

"B-But they might be in a serious discussion o-or something important…" she started pushing her fingers together.

"Not if Lee's there." Neji pointed out. Now that got me laughing, I couldn't hold it in, yet again it was true, Hinata just mumbled something along the lines 'o-oh' and didn't say anything else. Neji merely smirked at his comment about his teammate.

"W-Well I should be g-going…" Hinata said whilst standing up.

"Aww! But you're like my only fun! Neji's not fun, he doesn't talk!" I yelled to her.

Again, needless to say I got a swift glare from him. "Hey Neji! That's your first glare today!" I told him, now I could feel the glare.

"–giggle- W-Well, I should go anyway." She said smiling.

"Well okay, but make sure to visit Naruto!" I said to her, she blushed again at the mention of his name, I loved doing that.

"O-Okay, I w-will…" and with that Hinata went out of the door closing it behind her.

Silence loomed in the room for a while.

"So…um…Neji? Can I ask you a question?" I said.

"Hn…" he said, that meant 'yes'.

"What do you…think of me?" I asked him.

Neji looked a little shocked at my question, "I mean, not as a teammate…but, a person, a friend…a girl…" I mentally slapped myself for saying this, but continued anyway. "You know what I think of you, so…what do you think of me as?" I said, ….

After that there was a long silence before anyone spoke.

"Tenten, I-" Neji tried to say.

Until…

KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK-KNOCK!

We both jumped as the door flew open and in came our last teammate. Rock Lee.

"NEJI!" he yelled, finally going beyond the hospital limits. "ARE YOU SLEEPING!" I was '—' this close to killing him, Neji was with me. "Lee, what if he was sleeping?" I scolded him. He shot his arms in the air "Then he would be awake now!" he said with glee. I elbowed him on the head to get him to shut up. "OW!" whined Lee, "Lee…-sigh- don't go yelling in the hospital!" I told him again.

"Gomen Tenten…" Lee said while rubbing his head.

"Soo, Lee did you see Naruto?" I asked him, knowing full well he'd already seen him, but I needed something to talk about, as much as I wanted Neji's answer…it should be able to wait a little longer….so should i….

"OH! Yes! He's doing fine, they say he'll be out in 2 days! But that Neji wont or many of the others until another week or so." He said.

"Aww-sigh- oh well, that means less training for all of us." They looked at me weird for a while, like I'd grown a third arm or something. Was it THAT surprising for me to want to train so bad? I think not, but they didn't.

"New subject!" Lee shouted again. "I talked to Sakura-chan!"

silence…

more silence…

"She shot you don't didn't she Lee?" I finally asked, apparently he was waiting for somebody to say something since he kept his arms in the air and had a grin on his face the whole time, I didn't think Neji was going to talk so I did.

"YE-sob-EEEE-sob-EESS!" he cried, and fell on my shoulder still crying.

"Ack! Lee!...-sigh-, don't worry about it, …" I said trying to comfort him.

He just kept on crying anyway, nothing I did really helped. "Lee why don't you just forget about her? There'll be others!" I kept on trying.

"Nooooo! Sakura-chan is my one true beautiful flower that I shall always protect!" he said while doing a halfhearted 'nice guy pose', keep in mind he was still crying! On my shoulder!

"Lee, stop crying." Neji said very sternly.

Lee immediately stopped crying and looked at Neji.

"Look what you're doing to Tenten's shirt, we don't want to have to make her to go change." Neji pointed out my shoulder, which was drenched in tears.

* * *

Neji POV

Tenten had a look of pure horror on her face after seeing her shoulder, She said she would be taking a long shower later today. She wept silent waterfall tears.

"Okay guys, we've had enough crying for now." I said, mostly directing it to Lee, who started this whole thing. They both nodded and Lee spoke out.

"Soo…what have you guys been doing?" he asked us.

We both looked at each other and said-

"Nothing" at the same time. Which only made Lee more suspicious.

"Oh really? So you guys spent 6 hours in here with each other doing nothing?"

"We had some visitors." I said, hoping to clear Lee's mind of thoughts unknown.

"Who?" Lee asked, this was getting annoying already.

"Hinata-chan." Tenten said.

"OH-" Le started but wasn't able to finish before there was more knocking.

Knock, Knock, Knock

Tenten opened the door to find Sakura, who walked in, grabbed Lee and left closing the door.

Tenten and I simply stared at the door hoping something would happen, but no, nothing was going to happen.

She looked at me and we exchanged glances, then neither of us would look at each other, not right now anyway. It was then I remembered he question, _'Neji...What do you…think of me?_' it rang through my head over and over, I knew that depending on what I said I might endanger our 'relationship' as friends or otherwise. I was going to respond to her but was cut off again, this time by her.

"Neji, just um, forget what I said earlier, okay?" she said while looking down. I had a feeling she felt the same way.

"Tenten, I have never, nor will I ever think of you as weak." I said to her, I thought it sounded reasonable enough. "Just remember that, I will protect you and be there for you whenever you need me." I simply put, before laying back down, content with my own words.

"N-Neji….." I heard her say before getting too drowsy to converse with her. _' Tenten……'_ I remembered thinking of her before falling asleep…

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Tenten POV

I watched him as he laid back down, that visit from Hinata and Lee must've taken a lot out of him…wait…what did he say? '_Just remember that, I will protect you and be there for you whenever you need me.'_. Did he just say…that he would 'protect me'?

I walked over to his resting body and saw he was sleeping. Again I caught myself watching him, 'better not make this a habit…' I thought.

He looked so content sleeping there, it's amazing how people can get away from reality just by going to sleep…escaping so much, but it seems so short compared to really living.

I leaned down to his face, listening to him breathe, waving my hand in front of his eyes I figured he really was asleep. So quickly I kissed him on the cheek hoping to give him good dreams.

"…Aishiteru…Neji" I whispered to him. Of course I knew he wouldn't hear me, that's why I did it.!

* * *

Normal POV

And with that Tenten closed the curtains, with one more glance at him while he slept, she walked out the door. Shutting it so he wouldn't be disturbed…

No one would ever know what went through the Hyuuga prodigy's mind at that moment, except for the smirk he had when re really did fall asleep.

The next morning when Tenten arrived she greeted the nurses and her friends, getting to see them today, when she was done she headed for Neji's room, unbeknownst to what awaits her. When she knocked on the door there wasn't any answer, so she assumed he was sleeping, she slowly opened the door and walked in not wanting to wake him. By the time she realized no one was in the bed she quickly turned around to face a smirking Hyuuga prodigy, he kissed her lips softly, before deepening it. She was so surprised she didn't know what to do, so she just returned it by putting her arms around his neck. When he broke the kiss they were both panting slightly, only two words were spoken.

"Aishiteru…Tenten." He let them fall out of his mouth as he pulled her head closer and their foreheads touched.

And there we leave a smiling Tenten and a smirking Neji to each other…with the old air conditioner blowing out kanpuu on the already cold…hospital floor.

* * *

(Jap): Waa…the ending was so kawaii, but still corny. ;; okay guys! I hope you liked it! I sure enjoyed writing this little one…okay, so it's nowhere near 'little' but you get my point. Here's the definitions of the words I used in it.

Kanpuu-cold breeze

Kaze- wind

Soyokaze-gentle breeze

Arigatou-thank you

Gomen-gomenasai- sorry-I'm sorry

Aishiteru-I love you

I think I got them all! Remember R+R!

Japponess-


End file.
